DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


THE 


BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER, 


THE  STANDARD 


PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 

A  SERMON, 

^  ■  *  « 

PREACHED  DURING  THE  SESSION  OF  THE 

CONVENTION  OP  THE  DIOCESE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA,  1849. 


BY  THE  REV,  CAMERON  McRAE, 

Rector  of  Emanuel  Churcli,  Warrenton,  N.  C. 


Published  by  request 


RICHMOND: 
H.  K.  ELLYSON,  PRINTER,  176,  MAIN  STREET \ 
1849. 


THE 

BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER, 

THE  STANDARD 

<Df  Jcrfritu,  Disriplim  anb  S^nrajrifi, 

OF  THE 

PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 
A  SERMON, 

PREACHED  DURING  THE  SESSION  OF  THE 

CONVENTION  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA,  1849. 
BY  THE  REV.  CAMERON  McRAE, 

Rector  of  Emanuel  Church,  Warrenton,  N.  C» 

Published  by  request. 


RICHMOND: 
H.  K.  ELLYSON,  PRINTER,  176,  MAIN  STREET. 
1849. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/bookofcommonpray44mcra 


CORRESPONDENCE 


To  Rev.  C.  F.  McRae, 

Dear  Sir: — The  undersigned  beg  leave  to  express  to  you  the  sincere 
pleasure  with  which  they,  in  common  with  many  others,  listened  to  your 
sermon  delivered  during  the  session  of  the  Episcopal  Convention  in  this 
place,  and  being  desirous  to  give  publicity  to  the  sound  doctrines  of  the 
Church  which  it  expounds,  request  you  to  furnish  them  with  a  copy  for 
publication. 


R.   B.  DRANE. 
D.   C.  FREEMAN. 
T.   S.   W.  MOTT, 
JOHN  R.  LEE. 
JOHN  H.  PARKER. 
R.  GALLOWAY. 
JOHN  S.  EATON. 
BENJAMIN  SUMNER. 


J.   H.  HAUGHTON. 
JOHN  B.  LORD. 
H.   A.  LONDON. 
ROBERT  STRANGE. 
THOMAS  HILL. 
L.  BINGHAM. 
JOHN  W.  WRIGHT, 


Gentlemen : 

In  yielding  to  your  wishes,  let  me  say,  the  sermon  to  which  you  refer 
was  prepared  with  no  view  to  publication,  but  simply  for  the  instruction  of 
my  own  people,  otherwise  it  would  have  been  more  developed. 

I  should  be  glad  to  add  to  it  to  give  it  more  completeness,  but  then  it 
would  not  strictly  be  what  you  heard  and  solicit  me  to  publish.  It  is  there- 
fore sent  without  alteration  of  any  sort,  in  the  earnest  hope  that  it  may  be 
productive  of  good.  With  great  respect, 

Your  friend  and  brother  in  Christ, 

Cameron  F.  McRae. 


'errata. 

frgc  J«.i.  for  Tricentenary,  Tercentanary. 

*«    1      .  or  r-h   13  h  line)  read  lor  ihis  Chinch. 

-1    34. n  4f  •>!  the  iJ         Book  ',7ih  line)  read  ofine  Liturgy. 

M      "      a         hing  ...        a  lond  thing. 

M    X3ih  »«    Sacred  Truth       ■       •       Sacred  Trust. 


SERMON 


2  TIMOTHY,  IV:  13. 

HOLD  FAST  THE  FORM  OF  SOUND  WORDS  WHICH  THOU  HAST  HEARD  OF 
ME  IN  FAITH  AND  LOVE  WHICH  IS  IN  CHRIST  JESUS. 

Sunday  next,  Whitsunday,  will  be  the  tricentenary  of 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  For  three  hundred  years 
have  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  in  almost  the  precise  order 
in  which  they  were  said  by  us  to-day,  been  offered  by  that 
branch  of  the  Church  Catholic  from  which  the  Church  to 
which  we  have  the  high  privilege  to  belong,  is  descended. 

It  would  seem  a  fit  occasion  to  consider  some  of  the  ex- 
cellencies of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  the  great  safe- 
guard and  advantage  the  Church  possesses  in  such  a  liturgy. 

The  work  then  performed  was  almost  entirely  a  work  of 
compilation.  It  was  simply  to  gather  what  we  now  possess 
from  the  earliest  and  most  approved  liturgies;  those  which 
had  been  composed  and  used  by  the  martyrs  and  confessors 
of  the  best  days  of  Christianity.  The  compilers  of  this 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  thus  went  back  to  the  first  days  of 
the  Church,  and  have  perpetuated  those  forms  of  devoiion 
which  once  sprang  warmly  from  the  lips  of  those  who  lived 
nearest  to  inspired  times,  and  who  sealed  the  truth  with 
their  own  blood.  They  regarded  that  which  was  first 
taught  as  being  nearest  God's  truth;  and  hence  the  creeds 
which  they  adopted,  were  such  as  were  confessed  by  the 
Church  Catholic  in  her  purest  days. 

But  not  merely  is  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints 
thus  treasured  up  and  preserved  in  the  Apostles'  and  Nicene 
creeds,  but  it  is  also  incorporated  into  the  prayers  and  other 
offices  of  devotion  as  set  forth  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  These  are,  in  a  sense,  forms  of  belief  also;  since, 
what  the  Church  teaches  is,  in  her  prayers  and  offices  again 


6 


and  again  repeated.,  and  that  too,  not  in  cold  addresses  to 
the  understanding,  but  in  direct  appeals  to  the  heart.  There 
is  not  an  important  truth  of  the  blessed  gospel,  that  is  not  in 
some  way  bound  up  in  the  liturgy  of  the  Church,  and  indel- 
ibly impressed  by  frequent  use  upon  the  mind  and  heart  of 
the  devout  worshiper. 

The  Church  in  supplying  her  members  with  offices  of  de- 
votion, supplies  them,  at  the  same  time,  with  articles  of  faith. 
Nothing,  (I  may  instance,)  can  more  effectually  teach  the 
doctrine  of  the  ever  blessed  trinity,  than  the  invocation  of 
the  different  persons  of  the  Godhead  contained  in  the  litany; 
nothing  can  so  effectually  as  this  guard  the  Church  against 
the  heresy  of  denying  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  that  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  For  at  every  offering  of  the  litany,  she 
distinctly  confesses  the  Son  as  God,  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  as  being  "  three  persons  and 
one  God." 

And  what  is  said  of  this  may  be  likewise  said  of  the  sev- 
eral doctrines  of  the  christian  Church.  They  are  to  be 
found  not  only  in  her  formal  creeds,  but  woven  also  into 
her  very  prayers.  Now,  nothing  so  much  as  this  can  de- 
fend the  Church  from  the  sin  of  heresy;  for  nothing  so 
much  as  this  can  familiarize  the  minds  of  her  members  with 
the  truth.  What  she  teaches  is  not  closed  up  in  some  dry 
confession  of  faith,  couched  in  technical  terms  and  unsuited 
to  the  common  reader,  and  therefore  seldom  or  never  read. 
The  Church  has  adopted  a  wiser  and  a  better  plan.  She 
teaches  her  children  what  to  believe  when  she  teaches  them 
how  to  pray. 

And  if  we  bear  this  in  mind,  it  will  greatly  assist  us  in 
understanding  aright  the  liturgy.  It  will  throw  light  upon 
many  parts  to  which  we  had  perhaps  attached  no  peculiar 
meaning.  If  we  would  enter  fully  into  the  spirit  and 
meaning  of  the  liturgy,  we  must  throw  ourselves  back  into 
the  times  when  it  was  compiled  and  put  into  its  present 
shape.    I  need  not  remind  you  that  it  was  compiled  at  the 


7 


period  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  church  having  freed 
herself  from  the  usurpations  and  corruptions  of  Rome, 
sought  to  bring  every  thing  to  the  simplicity,  and  purity,  and 
catholicity  of  the  primitive  practice  and  faith.  And  in 
framing  the  liturgy,  she  erected  the  strongest  bulwark,  next 
the  Bible,  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  against  the  errors  of 
the  Roman  Church.  For  she  went  for  the  materials  that 
form  it,  to  an  age  anterior  to  the  existence  of  papal  intoler- 
ance and  corruption.  Indeed,  this  was  the  great  work 
which  the  English  reformers  set  themselves  to  achieve. 
The  work  to  which  they  were  called  of  God,  was  to  free 
his  Church  from  the  abuses  of  the  Roman  system.  And 
this  they  effectually  accomplished,  by  reducing  things  to  the 
condition  in  which  they  were  before  Roman  supremacy  was 
recognized  or  known.  This  is  abundantly  shown  in  various 
parts  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  And  if  we  bear 
this  in  mind,  it  will  greatly  assist  us  in  defining  the  full  and 
peculiar  meaning  of  many  parts  of  it. 

I  mention  one  as  an  illustration.  The  Church  of  Rome 
taught  then  as  she  teaches  now,  the  absolute  necessity  of 
auricular  confession  and  of  judicial  absolution  to  the  for- 
giveness of  sin.  She  made  it  (where  it  could  be  had)  an 
indispensable  condition  of  salvation.*  She  taught  then  as 
now,  that  no  forgiveness  can  be  had  of  God  unless  the  pen- 
itent accompanies  his  repentance  by  a  private  confession  to 
a  priest,  and  from  him  receives  sacramental  absolution. 

Now  this  doctrine  was  altogether  unknown  to  the  primi- 
tive Church. f  It  was  a  doctrine,  therefore,  which  the  com- 
pilers of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  sought  most  studiously 

*"  Secret  confession  to  the  priest  alone,  of  all  and  every  mortal  sin,  which, 
upon  the  most  diligent  search  and  examination  of  our  consciences,  we 
can  remember  ourselves  to  have  been  guilty  since  our  baptism,  together 
with  all  the  circumstances  of  those  sins  which  may  change  the  nature 
of  them;  because  without  the  perfect  knowledge  of  these,  the  priest  cannot 
make  a  judgment  of  the  nature  and  quality  of  men's  sins,  nor  impose  fitting 
penance  upon  them." — Decree  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 

t  Bingham's  Christian  Antiquities. 


8 

to  correct;  and  you  will  find  the  mode  of  that  correction  in 
the  several  collects  for  Ash  Wednesday. 

Ash  Wednesday  and  Shrove  Tuesday  (the  day  previous,) 
aie  in  the  Romish  Church  days  of  confession,  penance,  and 
peculiar  humiliation,  connected  with  absolution.  And  the 
Church  in  her  service  for  Ash  Wednesday  bears  this  in 
mind,  and  in  the  prayers  she  teaches  her  children  to  offer 
on  that  clay,  seeks  to  correct  these  fatal  errors.  This  is  the 
history  of  the  collects  for  Ash  Wednesday,  and  explains  to 
us  in  a  peculiar  sense  their  meaning.  The  first  collect  has 
these  words,  "That  we  may  obtain  of  Thee,  the  God  of  all 
mercy,  perfect  remission  and forgiveness." 

The  two  following  are  taken  from  the  commination  ser- 
vice of  the  Church  of  England,  and  are  leveled  against 
private  confession  and  the  corrupt  view  of  absolution — thus  : 
"O  Lord,  spare  all  those  who  confess  their  sins  wito 
thee,  that  they,  whose  consciences  by  sin  are  accused,  by 
thy  merciful  pardon  may  be  absolved."  Again — "Thy 
property  is  always  to  have  mercy;  to  thee  only  it  appertain- 
ed to  forgive  sins." 

I  have  cited  this  as  illustrative  of  what  I  have  already 
said — that  the  Church  defends  herself  from  errors,  not 
merely  in  her  formal  creeds,  but  in  her  very  prayers  and 
offices  of  devotion;  and  that  if  we  would  understand  these 
aright,  we  must  look  at  the  circumstances  under  which  they 
were  formed.* 

The  Church  is  sometimes  suspected  of,  and  charged 
with  Romish  tendencies;  and  yet  there  is  no  Church  in  all 
Christendom  so  fortified  against  such  influences.    She  pos- 

*  Another  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  prayers  for  the  whole 
State  of  Christ's  Church  militant.  The  Church  of  Rome  teaches  the  effica- 
cy of  prayers  for  the  dead ;  and  accordingly  offers  masses  for  the  repose  of 
souls  and  for  their  release  from  the  pains  of  purgatory. 

In  the  place  of  this,  the  Church  calls  us  to  pray  for  the  whole  State  of 
Christ's  Church  militant — and  the  Church  of  England  studies  to  be  more 
guarded— for  she  says :  Let  us  pray  for  the  whole  State  of  Christ's  Church 
militant  here  on  earth.  These  words  were  designed  expressly  to  exclude 
prayer  for  the  dead. — Shepherd  on  the  Common  Prayer. 


9 


sesses  now  the  very  creeds  and  offices  of  devotion,  which 
she  possessed  when  first  she  came  from  the  fiery  ordeal  of 
the  Reformation.  She  was  then  regarded  as  having*  no  Ro- 
mish tendencies;  and  for  holding  then  what  she  now  holds, 
her  holy  bishops  Cranmer,  and  Ridley,  and  Latimer,  and 
Hooper  suffered  at  the  cruel  stake. 

Her  faith  remains  the  same.  She  has  renounced  jot  nor 
tittle  of  what  she  then  held.  She  has  endured  too  much 
suffering  for  the  cause  of  catholic  truth  to  be  led  again 
into  error. 

But  may  it  not  be  that  in  our  eagerness  to  roll  from  the 
Church  a  bias  to  Romish  errors,  that  we  fail  to  follow  what 
the  Church  really  does  teach?  May  it  not  be  that  in  our 
eagerness  to  escape  what  she  condemns,  we  rush  heedlessly 
by  what  the  Church  really  sanctions?  Let  us  take  heed 
what  we  do.  The  Church  does  not  hold  the  Romish  doc- 
trine of  auricular  confession  and  that  of  sacramental  abso- 
lution as  necessary  to  salvation.  But  she  does  exhort  her 
children  in  these  words:  "If  there  be  any  of  you  who  can- 
not quiet  his  own  conscience  but  requireth  further  comfort 
or  counsel,  let  him  come  to  me  or  some  other  minister  of 
God's  word,  and  open  his  grief,  that  he  may  receive  such 
godly  counsel  and  advice  as  may  tend  to  the  quieting  of  his 
conscience  and  the  removing  all  scruple  and  doubtful- 
ness." It  is  plain,  then,  the  Church  believes  cases  may 
exist  in  which  the  distressed  individual  cannot  quiet  his 
own  conscience;  and  this  is  the  provision  which  she  has 
made  for  such  cases.  Common  reason  and  interest  teach 
men  what  to  do  when  they  are  under  any  doubts  and  diffi- 
culties in  other  matters.  He,  for  instance,  who  doubts  his 
title  to  an  earthly  inheritance,  a  temporal  estate,  does  not 
hesitate  to  consult  an  able  lawyer  and  take  his  advice  and 
counsel.  And  if  one  is  suffering  from  a  physical  malady,  he 
betakes  himself  to  some  skilful  and  approved  physician. 
Why  then  in  cases  that  afflict  the  soul — those  spiritual  mal- 
2 


10 


adies  to  which  the  christian  is  exposed — why  in  such  as 
these  should  we  hesitate  (o  consult  a  spiritual  guide,  who 
may  be  presumed  as  skilful  and  as  learned  in  his  profession 
as  either  of  the  former?  His  business  is  to  understand  the 
nature  of  God,  and  his  religion,  and  his  laws,  and  the  ex- 
tent of  his  mercy  and  terms  of  pardon  to  penitent  sinners. 
Who  then  can  be  so  well  qualified  to  guide  the  enquiring 
— to  soothe  the  distressed — to  relieve  the  afflicted  soul?  He 
is,  indeed,  constituted  by  Christ  to  be  his  minister  upon 
earth  for  these  very  purposes;  not  only  in  Christ's  stead,  to 
beseech  men  to  be  reconciled  and  to  pray  for  them,  but  to  give 
them  in  seasons  of  doubt  and  distress,  help  and  comfort; 
nay,  more,  "to  declare  and  pronounce  to  Christ's  people, 
being  penitent,  (I  quote  the  very  language  of  the  Church,) 
the  absolution  and  remission  of  their  sins."* 

It  is  indeed  true  of  our  religious  feelings,  that  they  can- 
not be  disclosed  without  injury  to  the  common  gaze  of 
others.  To  unlock  the  door  of  the  heart,  and  allow  others 
to  pry  into  the  most  sacred  feelings  that  exist  within,  is  to 
tear  away  the  veil  of  the  temple  and  disclose  to  profane  eyes 
the  mysteries  of  God.  And  for  this,  shall  it  be  said  that  the 
distressed  penitent  should  fly  immediately  to  God  ?  It  is  God 
whom  he  has  offended;  and  bowed  beneath  a  sense  of  his 
sinfulness,  he  has  no  courage,  no  confidence  to  approach  him. 
Shall  he  betake  himself  to  Christ?  He  is  indeed  the  great 
intercessor  between  God  and  man.  But  it  is  his  blood  that 
he  has  accounted  an  unholy  thing.  He  looks  upon  Christ 
not  as  a  Saviour,  but  as  a  Judge.  He  feels  that  he  has  cru- 
cified afresh  the  Son  of  God^and  fears  his  just  anger.  What 
then?  Angels  cannot  assist  him;  for  though  "  ministering 
spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  to  those  who  shall  be  heirs  of 

*"The  Church  of  Rome  makes  the  absolution  of  the  priest,  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  penance,  essential  to  the  salvation  of  every  individual.  The 
churchman  only  considers  a  general  absolution  as  an  edifying  and  consola- 
tory part  of  public  service." — (Bishop  HobarVs  charge  to  his  clergy  in  1849.) 


11 

salvation/'  their  agency  is  invisible.  And  the  distressed 
soul  needs  a  visible  comforter  to  whom  it  may  open  its  grief, 
and  whose  advice  it  may  take  in  its  sorrow.  It  has  often  a 
need  beyond  this.  It  needs  a  distinct  declaration  and  as- 
surance from  one  authorized  by  Christ  to  pronounce  them, 
of  the  terms  and  conditions  on  which  the  Divine  for- 
giveness is  bestowed.  To  whom  in  such  a  case  shall  the 
penitent  go,  but  to  him  who  is  commissioned  to  declare  in 
Christ's  name  the  terms  of  pardon — whose  business  it  is  to 
solve  his  doubts — to  assist  him  in  examining  his  repent- 
ance, comparing  it  for  him  with  the  word  of  God.  Man- 
kind may  put  so  low  an  estimate  upon  this  wise  and  merci- 
ful provision  of  the  Church,  as  to  pass  it  by  with  indiffer- 
ence. We  are  often  unmindful  of  the  privileges  vouchsafed 
us.  But  this  does  not  affect  the  nature  of  any  privilege, 
nor  release  us  from  an  obligation  to  apply  for  its  benefits 
when  we  really  need  them. 

I  said  no  Church  in  all  Christendom  is  so  well  defended 
against  usurpation  and  errors.  It  was  not  said  at  hazard. 
It  was  no  vague  and  unmeaning  declaration.  It  is  strictly 
true. 

Were  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  to  be  found  only  in 
some  formal  confession  of  faith,  and  did  the  people  receive 
instruction  as  to  their  meaning  from  the  pulpit  alone,  their 
teachers  might  cause  them  to  err.*  But  it  is  far  otherwise. 
The  doctrines  of  the  Church  are  not  mystified  by  metaphysi- 
cal distinctions.  They  are  not  set  forth  in  a  form  uninvit- 
ing and  obscure.  They  are  in  your  daily  prayers,  and 
woven  into  offices  you  are  familiar  with  from  childhood;  and 
if  one  is  ignorant  of  what  tTie  Church  teaches,  it  is  because 
he  knows  not  what  his  Prayer  Book  contains.  Let  him  use 
it  with  prayerful  diligence,  and  he  will  soon  discover  it  to 

*  We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  importance  of  a  liturgy,  if  we  consider 
the  unhappy  condition  of  those  who  reject  it.  There  are  now  prevalent 
among  the  leading  denominations  in  this  country,  as  independent  organiza- 
tions— 7  distinct  sects  of  Baptists,  5  of  Methodists,  6  of  Presbyterians,  4  of 
Congregationalists. 


12 

give  no  unmeaning  or  uncertain  sound.  Let  him  give  heed 
to  it,  and  he  will  be  preseived  from  error,  and  his  mind 
and  heart  be  enriched  with  all  necessary  truth.  The  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  is  the  teaching  of  the  Church  to  which 
we  have  the  high  privilege  to  belong.  It  is  her  authorized 
confession  of  faith.  Nothing  contrary  to  it  is  to  be  received 
as  an  article  of  belief  binding  the  conscience;  and  the 
Church  allows  no  minister  to  assume  to  himself  the  right  to 
give  his  own  interpretation  of  holy  writ.  This  is  not  his 
business.  Did  he  proclaim  nothing  more  than  what  he 
thought,  his  exposition  of  holy  Scripture  would  be  of  no 
more  worth,  than  that  of  any  private  christian  equally 
instructed.  It  is  because  he  forgets  his  own  imaginings,  and 
utters  not  what  he  conceives  to  be  truth,  but  what  the 
Church  from  the  first  has  taught,  that  his  instruction  is 
indeed  of  value,  and  worthy  to  be  received.  We  should 
feel  as  though  we  had  no  claim  to  your  patient  attention, 
were  we  to  proclaim  nothing  more  than  our  interpretation  of 
the  meaning  of  the  Scriptures.  It  would  be  worthless  to 
you  indeed,  and  a  miserable  substitute  for  that  we  are  set  to 
announce,  viz:  The  teaching  of  the  Church.  The  gospel  in 
its  integrity  and  entireness — not  simply  a  few  of  its  cardinal 
truths,  but  the  whole  gospel,  as  first  proclaimed  by  the 
apostles  and  taught  by  them  to  their  immediate  successors, — 
has  descended  to  us  neither  corrupted  by  human  traditions  on 
the  one  hand,  nor  weakened  by  human  omissions  on  the  other. 

Such,  then,  are  the  blessed  privileges  of  our  Zion.  Bap- 
tized into  the  holy  Church  of  God,  we  are  furnished  with  a 
book  of  devotion  which  is  not  the  offspring  of  yesterday,  but 
one  which  contains  the  creeds  of  the  primitive  Church, 
and  is  enriched  with  the  prayers  through  which  confessors, 
and  saints,  and  martyrs  have  approached  the  Most  High. 
As  members  of  this  Church,  we  are  in  no  uncertainty.  It  is 
our  blessed  privilege  to  know  what  we  believe,  and  to  be 
assured  doctrinally,  no  less  than  practically,  of  the  hope 
that  is  in  us.    Our  holy  creeds  contain  all  the  essential  doc- 


13 


trinal  truths  of  holy  Scripture,  and  our  collects  and  prayers 
teach  its  deepest  mysteries  and  its  highest  practical  require- 
ments. We  are  not  dependent  upon  any  particular 
preacher  for  the  time  being.  Our  faith  and  our  prayers 
remain  the  same  whoever  may  occupy  the  pulpit.  The 
liturgy  is  then  a  constant  check  upon  the  preacher.  He  is 
bound  to  conform  his  teaching  to  it.  Whatever  is  declared 
from  this  sacred  place  must  accord  with  the  Prayer  Book, 
otherwise  it  can  have  no  binding  authority  with  us. 

Every  priest  of  the  Church  has  vowed  to  give  "  faithful 
diligence,  always  so  to  minister  the  doctrine,  and  sacra- 
ments, and  the  discipline  of  Christ,  as  the  Lord  hath  com- 
manded, and  as  the  Church  hath  received  the  same,  accord- 
ing to  the  commandments  of  God;',#  and  how,  in  what 
sense  the  church  has  received  these  things,  we  learn  from 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  her  authorized  exponent  and 
confession  of  faith.  By  this  is  he  required  to  frame  his 
teaching,  and  a  departure  from  it  is  a  violation  of  his  ordi- 
nation vow.  And  the  canon  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  reference  to  this  expressly  declares,  (<  Whoever  shall  do 
otherwise,  and  shall  disturb  the  people  with  contrary  doc- 
trine, shall  be  excommunicated."  What  the  Church 
requires  of  her  ministers,  cannot  be  expressed  more  distinctly 
than  in  the  charge  of  our  beloved  Bishop  to  the  clergy  of 
his  diocese  in  1836,  "on  the  duties  now  especially  called 
for  to  preserve  the  faith  of  the  church. "  He  says:  "As 
ministers  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  we  have 
made  a  solemn  declaration  of  our  belief  in  her  doctrines  as 
scriptural,  and  have  vowed  fidelity  to  her  interests  and  sub- 
mission to  her  authority,  in  diligently  setting  them  forth  as 
the  doctrines  of  God.  We  are  not  at  liberty,  therefore,  to  de- 
part in  the  slightest  degree  from  the  faith  of  the  Church  as 
expressed  in  her  articles  and  liturgy .f    Our  professed  sub- 

*  The  ordaining  of  priests  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

\  "  A  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  administration  of  the  sacraments  and 
other  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  church,  articles  of  religion,  and  a  form 


14 

mission  was  voluntary — it  must  be  real  and  unqualified." 
Again,  in  his  charge  to  his  clergy  in  1841,  he  says,  in 
reference  to  the  powers  of  the  priesthood:  u  These  powers 
are  defined  and  limited.  All  essential  points  of  faith  and 
discipline  are  definitely  settled  by  the  authority  which 
Christ  reposed  in  the  Church.  The  creeds,  and  offices,  and 
catechism,  and  rubrics,  and  articles  of  the  prayer  book,  shew 
how  the  doctrines,  the  sacraments  and  discipline  of  Christ 
have  been  received  by  the  Church,  and  hence  what  the  stand- 
ards are  by  which  each  minister  is  to  be  governed  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  functions." 

Such  are  the  godly  admonitions  which  our  ordination 
vows  bind  us  to  heed;  and  if  these  be  religiously  observed, 
then  u  the  Romish  doctrine  concerning  purgatory,  pardons, 
worshiping  and  adorations  as  well  of  images  as  of  relics, 
and  also  invocation  of  saints,"  will  find  no  place  among  us, 
for  the  22d  article  declares  such  doctrine  "a  foul  thing, 
vainly  invented  and  grounded  upon  no  warranty  of  scrip- 
ture, but  rather  repugnant  to  the  word  of  God."  Thus  we 
find  no  thraldom  in  submitting  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Church.  Hear  her  with  reverence  and  with  cheerfulness; 
obey  her  not  as  arrogating  any  right  to  domineer  over  your 
faith,  but  because  Christ  has  made  the  Church  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth" — "its  witness  and  keeper."  It 
is  on  this  account  she  challenges  our  reception  of  her  faith — 
because  "it  is  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints." 

It  was  in  reference  to  the  principles  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  that  our  first  Bishop,  the  sainted  Ravenscroft, 
in  his  last  charge  to  his  clergy,  afTectingly  said:  "On  these 

and  manner  of  making,  ordaining  and  consecrating  Bishops,  Priests  and 
Deacons,  when  established  by  this  or  a  future  General  Convention,  shall  be 
used  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in  those  dioceses  which  shall  have 
adopted  this  Constitution.  No  alteration  or  addition  shall  be  made  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  or  other  offices  of  the  Church,  or  the  articles 
of  religion,  unless  the  same  be  proposed  in  one  General  Convention,  and  by 
a  resolve  thereof  made  known  to  the  Convention  of  every  diocese,  and 
adopted  at  the  subsequent  General  Convention. — Art.  8th  Con.  of  the  Church. 

See  36th  Article  on  the  Homilies. 


15 


principles,  derived  from  the  Bible  and  from  the  Bible  alone, 
searched  for  among  the  various  accessible  denominations  of 
christian  profession,  but  found  only  in  the  Church,  I  shall 
go,  God  being  my  helper,  to  my  account.  On  these  princi- 
ples, professed  and  acted  on,  or  compromised  and  sur- 
rendered, will  the  Church,  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
flourish  or  decline,  continue  or  melt  away  into  a  sect." 

And  his  venerated  successor,  in  the  charge  from  which  I 
have  already  quoted,  exhorts:  " Be  faithful  in  imparting  to 
your  people  a  proper  knowledge,  and  in  urging  upon  them  a 
proper  use  of  this  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  you  will 
do  much  to  protect  them  against  the  errors  of  the  day. 
You  will  put  a  c  two  edged  sword '  into  their  hands  for 
their  own  defence;  will  most  effectually  furnish  them  with 
the  shield  of  faith." 

And  now  let  me,  in  conclusion,  ask,  who  can  doubt, 
placed  as  is  the  Church  in  the  midst  of  a  sea  of  contending 
factions,  and  surrounded  by  perpetually  shifting  systems  of 
faith,  that  with  an  apostolic  ministry,  our  great  safeguard, 
under  God,  is  in  the  possession  of  our  incomparable  liturgy? 

In  this  day  of  distress  and  anxiety,  when  men  are  casting 
about  them  for  some  sure  refuge  from  the  baleful  effects  of 
heresy  and  schism,  with  what  confidence  may  we  point  to 
this  security  for  the  preservation  and  defence  of  the  truth. 
The  materials  of  which  it  is  formed,  were  brought  from  an 
age  in  which  the  Church  knew  but  one  heart,  and  one  mind. 
They  existed  in  that  fair  morning  before  clouds  of  human  sys- 
tems and  theories  arose  to  obscure  the  brightness  of  the  truth. 

Our  blessed  Lord  has  said,  his  disciples  shall  be  known, 
not  by  their  loud  professions — not  by  any  party  zeal  they 
may  show— not  by  religious  ostentation,  but  by  this,  that 
they  "love  one  another."  "By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
ye  are  my  disciples,  that  ye  have  love  one  toward  another." 
In  order  to  this  we  are  to  strive  to  be  one,  as  the  Father  and 
his  Christ  are  one.  How  great  must  be  the  influence  of 
our  holy  liturgy  in  bringing  us  to  this  mind  and  this  heart. 
How  should  this  mingling  together  common  prayers  and 


16 


common  praises,  knit  heart  to  heart,  and  bind  the  Church 
as  the  soul  of  one  to  God. 

Let  us  cherish  this  sacred  truth.  Remember  that  in  the 
Church's  keeping  are  the  holy  Scriptures  and  the  creeds, 
the  holy  sacraments  and  the  liturgy.  Let  us  ever  bear  in 
mind  the  words  of  one  of  the  most  learned  doctors  of  the 
Church,  (Dr.  South:)  "There  is  no  prayer  necessary  that 
is  not  in  the  liturgy  but  one,  which  is  this,  that  God  would 
vouchsafe  to  continue  the  liturgy  itself  in  use,  and  honor, 
and  veneration,  in  this  Church  forever."  "Remember 
how  thou  hast  received  and  heard,  and  hold  fast." 

The  liturgy  breathes  no  sectarian  spirit.  It  is  tinged 
with  no  party  views,  and  hence  has  commanded  the  admira- 
tion of  the  most  honored  men  of  every  household  of  faith. 

Dr.  Adam  Clark  speaks  of  it  "  as  a  form  of  devotion  that 
has  no  equal  in  any  part  of  the  universal  Church  of  God." 
"It  is  founded  on  those  doctrines  which  contain  the  sum 
and  essence  of  Christianity.  Next  to  the  Bible,  the  Prayer 
Book  is  the  book  of  my  understanding  and  my  heart." 

Robert  Hall,  the  eminent  Baptist  Divine,  speaking  of  the 
liturgy,  says:  ii  I  believe  that  the  evangelical  purity  of  its 
sentiments,  the  chastened  fervor  of  its  devotions,  and  the 
majestic  simplicity  of  its  language,  have  combined  to  place 
it  in  the  very  first  rank  of  uninspired  compositions." 

And  in  our  own  day,  we  have  this  tribute  from  Dr.  Barnes, 
of  the  Presbyterian  faith:  "We  have  never  doubted  that 
many  of  the  purest  flames  of  devotion  that  rise  from  the  earth, 
ascend  from  the  altars  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  in  prayers 
and  praises  consecrated  by  the  use  of  piety  for  centuries." 

Thus,  what  the  pious  Bishop  Horne  says  of  the  Psalms, 
most  happily  applies  to  the  sacred  services  of  the  Church: 
"They  suit  mankind  in  all  situations;  grateful  as  the 
manna  which  descended  from  above  and  conformed  itself  to 
every  palate.  He  who  hath  once  tasted  their  excellencies 
will  desire  to  taste  them  again,  and  he  who  tastes  them 
oftenest  will  relish  them  the  best." 


aaiX2-M  342894 
N-C  Pamphlets 


N.C       975.6       Z993  1841-53 

V»t,l*>f      y,  >f  342394 


OUTSIDE  T#i*  -:-  '  b^H*0*"0 


